The last few days reports were dominated by
the visit of United Nations Special Rapporteur to Myanmar Ms Yanghee Lee; the appalling
report of United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on Rohingya problem
; the killing of a Kachin youth by the military in Myitkyina, Kachin State; the
government peace negotiator Dr Tin Myo
Win's deliberation to interact with Ethnic Armed Organizations (EAOs); Aung San Suu Kyi's Thailand visit and the
religious conflict that has happened in the latest flare-up of anti-Muslim
violence in a village in Bago province.

Amid such dominating topics, a little known
story of what has happened in Shan State would be the theme for this week
discussion, as it concerns the crucial question of ethnic equality, which the
Aung San Suu Kyi initiated 21st Century Panglong Conference (21CPC)
is determined to address and committed to see it through, seems to be hitting
the snag.

It all began when on 21 June SHAN reported
that Sai Sun Hseng, Minister for
Development Affairs Organization (DAO) “si-bin tha-ya-ye” in the Bamar
or Burmese language, actually municipality of Shan State, issued directive to
install welcome greetings signposts at the entrance of every town in Shan
State, in Shan language, in addition to the compulsory, lingua franca, Bamar
language. But barely after a week, another directive was issued to scrap the
plan.

According to the report, the scrap, or rather
the pending to continue, was due to the intervention of Shan State's ministry
for border defence and security, acting on the complaint or protest of a
militia leader (not belonging to the non-Shan ethnic group).

Nang None Moe, a teacher and also member of
the Shan Literature and Culture Committee, who complained the non-transparency
regarding the issue said: “Where is the democratic principles of freedom to
learn and make use of one's mother language and culture gone? My opinion is as
all know this is Shan State and written Shan script (on the town entrance
signpost) is not hurting anybody.”

She stressed a meeting between the concerned
State officials and the Civil Society Organizations should meet to work out the
problem.

The dual-language signage was one of the
government’s 100-days projects. Previously the signs were only in Myanmar
language, which not all local residents can read, local officials denied any
knowledge of the signage changes. “That wasn’t a Shan State project. It was a
Municipal Development Committee minister’s project. I don’t know the
situation,” said a spokesperson for Shan State Chief Minister U Linn Htut,
according to Myanmar Times report of 24 June.

It was said that signs were modified – to
include Shan language - across Shan State, in Laikha, Kengtawng, Loilem,
Tachilek, including Taunggyi, Monghsu, Kehsi and Mongnawng, among others,
according to the recent SHAN report.

Meanwhile the signpost that was wrapped with a
green cloth, waiting further instruction, was being burned down in Tachilek,
which was situated near the Burmese military installation and destruction of
the Loilem entrance signboard which has Shan script written on it. In both
cases the perpetrators were unknown.

Emotions run high as the Shan sees this as a
deliberate attempt to limit their rights, accusing the concerned
Bamar-dominated government of ethnocentrism or Burmanization intensively in
social media.

Myanmar Times reported that a Sai Hla Aung in
his Facebook said: “We have the right to access our own language. Stop
Burmanization.”

“Burmanization” of the non-Bamar ethnic groups
under the successive military regimes threatened the existence of ethnic
traditions and languages, combined with forced assimilation, a long-held grievance among Burma’s non-Bamar
ethnic population, which has its roots in curtailing the rights of
self-determination, equality and democracy, apart from treating them as their
colonial possessions, that has led to the decades-long ongoing ethnic conflict.

The Pyithu Hluttaw MP for Tachileik, U Htay
Win, said, “This could affect ethnic relationships. I don’t want this problem
to get bigger. I understand the Shan State government will discuss it at the
next hluttaw meeting.”

Safeguarding the Rights of
ethnic nationalities

Theoretically, this untoward
incident should not have happened. As the nine page “Law Safeguarding the
Rights of National Races” promulgated on 24 February 2015, by the previous
government, has made its aim clear enough that are listed in Chapter 2 as
follows:

·To obtain equal status for all national races
according to the rights of the citizenship;

·To cordially co-habit based on genuine union
spirit together among national races (ethnic groups);

·To protect, develop and improve language,
literature, culture, national symbol and historical legacy of the national
races; and

In line with the ethnic
safeguarding law, Minister for Ethnic Affairs Nai Thet Lwin was also optimistic
regarding the equal status achievement of the ethnic nationalities, when asked
during an interview with Nikkei Asian Review, on June 20, what federalism would
give the non-Bamar ethnic minorities in a Bamar majority society replied:
“Equal rights. If we have equal rights in all areas, there will be no more
clashes. Those in minority areas will not need to ask permission from central
government all the time. Their respective chief ministers can make decisions
for themselves”.

Regarding the chief minister
appointment he said. “According to the 2008 constitution, the president
appoints chief ministers. If we can amend the constitution, regional
parliaments will be able to appoint their own. There will not be chief
ministers appointed by the president”.

On the question as to on how
long the constitution amendment would take, he replied: “After the nationwide
ceasefire agreement, there will be political dialogue. It must be inclusive
with the tatmadaw (the military), ethnic armed groups, and nongovernmental
organizations involved. Then a new constitution must be agreed by all, and the
2008 state constitution can be overhauled”.

Perspective

Regardless of safeguarding
laws to protect the ethnic nationalities and positive outlook of the Minster
for Ethnic affairs, hurdles such as those happening in Shan State and elsewhere
are not new and only determined “political will” will be able to overcome them.

Adding to this, the National
League for Democracy (NLD) insistence of installing its own chief ministers in
Arakan and Shan states have irked the political parties of both states, as the
Arakan National Party (ANP) won the most seats in Arakan State and while the
Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD) came out second ahead of NLD in
Shan State, which they see it as unfair and should have given them a chance to
form state governments, with their own chief ministers.

For Shan State, it has been
particularly humiliating as the populace has to swallow the fact that an ethnic
Bamar, U Linn Htut, was installed as Shan chief minister. Sai Nyunt Lwin
pointed out this flaw in his writings and verbally, which reflects the majority
thinking of the Shan people, for never in the history has a non-Shan being
given such a position to rule over the Shan, even during the successive
military rule for the past fifty or more more years. And this has created a big
gap in trust-bulding between the NLD and the ethnic political parties.

While it is not clear why
such an action to fan the ethnic conflict to a new height has taken place, in
the face of Aung San Suu Kyi's ethnic reconciliation deliberation, it should
first be nipped in the bud before this discrimination against ethnic languages escalates
and moves over to inflame the political sphere , coupled with
confidence-building by showing largesse to let the project go ahead, for
intervening it in this way virtually cost nothing to the government.

Firstly, the concerned State
government should make a clear stand and tackle the problem according to the
“Law Safeguarding the Rights of National Races”.

Secondly, other than Burmese,
Shan and English languages, other non-Shan ethnic group that might be
co-habiting in the area or town should also be included at all the town
entrance of Shan State. It should be noted that it is quite common in
Switzerland to have a couple of languages on many of the signboards. Other
ethnic states might as well like to copy the procedure.

Thirdly, instead of stating that non-Bamar ethnic mother tongues will
be allowed to teach and learn at schools, it should be stated clearly that they
have the right to be taught and learned during school hours.

Fourthly, a long
term scheme in the reformation of the education to become more federal, the
Mother Tongue-based (MTB) parallel system should be encouraged and developed,
which means Bamar language as lingua franca and as well English would be taught
together with the concerned ethnic language of the state.

This small incident
might well looks like not so important. But it is as crucial as the
government's effort to end the armed
conflict with the ethnic groups. For it is part of the trust-building and
understanding to accept “unity in diversity” in trying to build a federal
system that all could live in harmony with each other.

That said, those
who still harbours forced assimilation as the only way to implement
nation-building should remould their thought and accept the motto of “common goal , diverse actions” for the benefit
of all the ethnic nationalities residing within the to be fully developed
federal union.